Time machine week 97

Today we bop over to November 4th, 1978.  In Dominica (AKA third rock from Antigua) they are celebrating getting their independence from the UK last night;  in Iran, the revolution that toppled the Shah kicks off today...

...but the BIG news is tonight's the night you got to watch the made for TV version of HG Wells' The Time Machine.  It starred John Beck (best known for an extended now-I'm-dead-now-I'm-not bit part on Dallas) and Priscilla Barnes (best known for not being as good as Suzanne Somers but less sucky than Jenilee Harrison).

ACCURACY ANNOUNCEMENT:  I got the date from the Rotten Tomatoes site- and they had it WRONG.  The Time Machine actually premiered on the 5th, which meant that rather than missing it for The Love Boat, I likely missed it for All In The Family and Alice.  But why correct when you can't get a better lead in, amIrite?

_________________________________________________


Welcome to this week's Time Machine, where we have a virtual tie on top of ol' Panel,  a guest-video to kick off the 6D, and two M10 debuts- in the top five, and 50 years apart in age!  I might not be as pretty as Priscilla Barnes, but at least you won't be driven around time by a guy with a cheesy porn mustache!


_______________________________________________

As I try to figure out how to make this all make the most sense, let me introduce this week's Panel:  WHB Kansas City; KFMB San Diego; WRKO Boston; KTKT Tucson; CIHI Fredericton NB; WLBZ Bangor; KYYX Seattle; KRLA Los Angeles; KFRC San Francisco; WLS Chicago; WSYL Buffalo; and WAVZ New Haven.  They collected 21 different songs, and three of them had already dropped off the national charts: The Village People's Macho Man (Chicago) and the Cars' Just What I Needed (San Diego) dropped three weeks back, and Meatloaf's Paradise By The Dashboard Lights (Bangor) fell 4 weeks back- and shame on them for missing the memo!  Otherwise, the low charter this week would be Summer Nights from Grease, which was on its way out at #71- but fear not Travolta and Newton-John fans, this story is NOT over- just paused for a bit.


They also collected 3 songs at #1 that didn't make the Final Four- Linda Ronstadt's Back In The USA (Tucson), Gerry Rafferty's Right Down The Line (Fredericton), and Ambrosia's How Much I Feel (New Haven).  And who DID make the P4??  Well...

At #4 with 17 points and #1s from Chicago and San Fran, the national #3, Exile's Kiss You All Over.

At #3, with 23 points and the #1s from Boston and Bangor, the national #4, Anne Murray's You Needed Me.

And how's this for the tightest race ever- just 2 points ahead of that, two songs that had 25 points!  One of them had four #1 votes (Seattle, KC, LA, and Buffalo) the other had just San Diego's.  So, that means the one with 4 is our winner, the other our runner up.  But was it the national # 5- Stevie Nicks and Kenny Loggins with Whenever I Call You Friend- or the national top dog- Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City?  Place yer bets, and find out at the end of our merry journey!

__________________________________

As I mentioned before, we have this week a debut from the sixties- and that is the first time in exactly six months, when Jimmy Ruffin's Farewell Is A Lonely Sound came off the UK list and onto the M10.  Well, in a bit o' irony, the research for the six degrees led me to another Jimmy Ruffin tune- a song that made #13 in the UK in 1980 when covered by one Dave Stewart, with vocals from the Zombies' Colin Blunstone!





At that time Colin was into covers (as was Dave- who is David L Stewart, as opposed to Annie Lennox's spear carrier David A Stewart), and he had charted also with a remake of the oft-covered hit Tracks Of My Tears (reaching #60).  Others charting that song were the UKs Go West (#16 over there), Aretha Franklin (who charted it as the b-side of another cover, The Weight, and hit #76), Johnny Rivers (who had the highest charter at #10), Linda Ronstadt (who did it best IMHO and hit #25), as well as the original by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, who hit #16.  That was on their highest charting lp, Going To A Go-Go- a song that they not only charted, but was covered by the Stones in 1982.  The flip side of their hit was a live version of 1978's Beast Of Burden- which, at #7 this week was the highest charter that got no Panel love.

____________________________________________

And now, our debut from 1966, which comes in all the way up at number 5!  I came across it trying to research the 13th Hour Glass song Indecision last week- it was the original they covered, though they considerably shortened the name.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the M10 debut of- Buffalo Springfield:






_____________________________________

So since the UK 10 has a distinctly "Grease-y" feel to it, I thought I'd bring in John Farrar, an Australian expat based in the UK and writer of some of the big hits from the movie (as well as a lot of other ONJ stuff) to give us words of wisdom for our lead in.  But as you will discover, these words have some very questionable wisdom- and I wonder how hard Olivia hit him when SHE heard them...

“Always bear in mind that boys are naturally wiser than you. Regard them as intellectual beings, who have access to certain sources of knowledge of which you are deprived, and seek to derive all the benefit you can from their peculiar attainments and experience.”


Uh-HUH.  And he's been married (to a WOMAN) for 47 years.  Anyway, this would be a GREAT time to...

10- A lot of never-charted here (most with good reason) on this week's list.  The first is by punk band Sham 69, a tune called Hurry Up, Harry.

9- After the Sex Pistols broke up, John Lydon AKA Johnny Rotten formed Public Image Ltd, a "post punk" band who screamed their way here with the imaginatively-titled Public Image.

8- Michael Jackson and his brothers' Blame It On The Boogie, which just debuted here in the US of A at #89 this week.

7- A tasty duet between Dean (Ariel) Friedman and New Yorker Denise Marsa- who was not credited on the label and for about a year and a half was "the mystery girl"- called Lucky Stars. Somehow, didn't chart here.

6- ELO's Sweet Talkin' Woman, which had peaked over here back in April.

5- A song that tied for 5th on the Panel this week, and was #2 nationally- Donna Summer's version of McArthur Park.

4- Boney M, a youth reggae band who made their name here with Rivers Of Babylon, charted this week in the UK- but not back here- with Rasputin.

3- The Boomtown Rats, known here for I Don't Like Mondays, with a good enough song that kinda drug a little long IMHO, Rat Trap.  Another non-charter.

Now Chris, I thought you said this was going to be a Grease-y list?  Settle down, because the movie holds BOTH the top spots!  First, a song I really liked but wasn't released here, John Travolta's Sandy at #2.  And the tops of the pops?

...John and Olivia with Summer Nights, which had already hit the top here and was going down.


__________________________________________________

Which brings us to the M10- and shortly, that other debut.  But first...

One more week for the big three- last time, the Explorers Club was 5 with Quietly, Lucius as 4 with Pulling Teeth, and Shakes was #3 with Tranquilize.  This week they ALL take five steps back, to #s 10, 9, and 8 respectively.

Tangerine's Wild At Heart and Geowulf's Saltwater swap spots, the former dropping to 7 and the latter rising to #6.

You heard number five.  And that means the next debut is one of the four highest in M10 history!  Allow me to introduce Cameron Spies, Elizabeth Ellison, and Radiation City with the debut at #4:





Two Door Cinema Club moves up a fast 5 to #3 with Lavender.

Agnes Obel holds at 2 in week #7 with Golden Green.

And tops of the charts here!  M10 says...

...for a second week, Dinosaur Jr with Love Is... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And have you made your pick?  The song that got the 4 #1 Panel votes and thus the winner of the tie is....

Nick Gilder and Hot Child In The City!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Stop in for week #98 next time when we travel to.... 1963!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!